Bowl Predictions, Week 3

Here ya go. Let’s hit the high points.

  • Yes, I know I have Georgia in the BCS. Right now, I am not sure what will happen to Florida if they lose in the last weekend of the season in the SEC title game and Gerogia wins outs. Of course, since UGA went to the Sugar last year they may want Florida if they can get them anyway.
  • I don’t see an undefeated Alabama or an undefeated Texas Tech getting jumped by Penn State. With TTU’s remaining schedule I think eventually the pollsters will move TTU up, or at the least the gap will close between TTU and Penn State, and with their commanding lead in the computers that will be enough to keep Texas Tech at #2.
  • Fun fact: if Penn State loses to Michigan State (by far the toughest team on their remaining schedule) then Michigan State will go to the Rose Bowl over Ohio State. OSU will still go to a BCS game if they win out, but still.
  • I, like most everyone else, have no idea what to make of the ACC. Last week I had Miami in the EagleBank Bowl and now they’re in the Gator. They could be in Boise next week. Trying to predict this conference sucks, but there are two teams that do control their path to the ACC title game: Maryland and Virginia Tech. Both, however, have plenty of conference games remaining.
  • Georgia Tech does not control its own destiny, though, since both of our/their losses are to ACC opponents in their own division. The one nice thing for Tech (as you can see on the right) is that they only have 2 conference games remaining, so they’ll get into the clubhouse early, as it were.
  • I actually have an extra team this week, Akron! We’ll see if that holds up, though. Of the extra MAC teams, I really have no idea which would be most preferred since they’re all pretty far away from most of bowl games. (I’m surprised more cold-weather cities with domes don’t have bowl games. Detroit has the Motor City Bowl and Toronto has the International Bowl and that’s it. I would think Indianapolis, with a new stadium and central location, would look into a game. Sure beats playing outdoors in Washington, D.C.)
  • If this holds up, I feel sorry for the Independence Bowl. Also, Troy, why you gotta lose to UL-Monroe? Though (somewhat ironically) they probably improve their bowl position this year with a loss (as opposed to last year, where their last game loss cost them a bowl appearance).
  • Somewhat Non-Obvious Matchup of the Week: Gator Bowl, Miami vs. Notre Dame. Maybe if we close our eyes and wish really hard, we can pretend it’s the 1988 version of these two teams. Miami suffered its only loss of the year to the undefeated Irish, 31-30. Okay, yeah, maybe this is pretty obvious but I don’t really see any other interesting non-BCS matchups this week. And Notre Dame will be vastly overpicked here, but they’re Notre Dame and they’ll draw better than Conneciticut, probably.